Defamer has an interesting piece today about how Oscar-winner, box-office champ Reese Witherspoon somehow manages to be billed second to B-lister Vince Vaughn in their upcoming flick.

Is it simply that studios are too terrified to give a woman first billing over a male star, lest people then think the film to be a chick flick? After all, Vaughn’s last hit was The Break-Up, the rare romantic comedy with strong male appeal, something that marketing folks might have felt was in jeopardy had costar Jennifer Aniston been first-billed. Four Christmases isn’t a romcom but a flat-out comedy, but would it be perceived as the former if Vaughn was subservient to Witherspoon in the billing block?

Yes, when compared to Witherspoon, the presence of Vaughn in this film makes us more likely to see it (though still? not very likely), simply because the actor has a track record of enlivening even the most formulaic films with his improvised comic riffs. Still, we wonder just how B- and C-list you’d have to go to find a male costar whom the studio would allow Witherspoon to supplant. In an alternate Four Christmases, could the actress vault over Colin Farrell to claim first billing? Or will she have to settle for a part opposite Freddie Prinze Jr. to claim what, by rights, should be hers?

What do you guys think?

Are studios ever going to be able to give a woman top billing in a comedy without it being labeled a chick flick?

I don’t know that there’s a Hollywood relationship I care less about — actually, that’s not true, I care about Rachel Bilson and Hayden Christensen slightly less — but, for those of you who do care, Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gylllllenhaaaaal were out shopping together in NYC this weekend.

Three hours into the flight, Reese reportedly got up from her seat and walked forward to the toilet. Two minutes later Jake got up and allegedly walked into the same bathroom. â€œI started timing them – they were together in there for 11-minutes,â€ the witness told Star.

Jake came out of the bathroom first, and Reese reportedly followed him three-minutes later. â€œWhen they each walked by, it seemed like everyone in their entourage took pains to look away.

“I have a real aversion to talking about my own personal politics just because I feel the influence sometimes, I see the influence of celebrity on our culture. And to think that my opinion is any more informed than anyone else’s or taken as thus is erroneous. I’m just like everybody else. I’m learning, reading, I’m trying to figure it out.”

Reese Witherspoon, the the Associated Press, on why she keeps her personal politics to herself.

Challenge to all Evil Beet readers: Use both the words “thus” and “erroneous” in a sentence today. Then you’ll be as cool as Reese Witherspoon.